After Sidney takes Geordie to Johnny Johnson’s London jazz club, they’re supposed to be leaving their worries behind them in Grantchester. After Amanda shows up though unexpectedly, the night takes a rather different turn. Johnny’s sister is murdered, leaving everybody devastating. Johnny and Claudette’s father calls in his friend, DCI Jacob Williams to work on the case.

Nancy DeWolf Smith

The glorious new PBS mystery series Grantchester is a revelation on two fronts and unforgettable on both. It turns back the clock to solve crime in a different era, offering respite from the world around us now even as it reveals how little ever changes about the human heart.

Tirdad Derakhshani

David Zurawik

David Wiegand

Grantchester is a period piece, but it’s fascinating to view it through a contemporary lens. Daisy Coulam’s adaptation is superb: She fleshes out the main characters with a deft hand, to be sure, but takes her time, enabling us to get to know Chambers as we would a new acquaintance.

Ken Tucker

The show is no masterpiece, despite the PBS rubric it falls under, but it’s dozy fun, and a nice respite from so much of the creepy, “edgy” crime dramas that continue to pop up on network TV like scary clowns.

Maureen Ryan

David Hinckley

Joining the likes of Poirot, Miss Marple, Foyle, Sherlock and a hundred other PBS sleuths is no minor achievement, and Grantchester seems to belong in that company. It is unlikely, however, to break away from the pack.

Mike Hale

Grantchester will be breezy fun for fans of the form, though the more discerning will be put off by how rudimentary the actual murder mysteries are after being squeezed into 50 minutes (half the norm for this type of show). Others are liable to find it faintly ridiculous, more of a haiku than an actual drama.